The present invention relates to a cleaning roller, especially for a suction head or suction nozzle, comprised of a substantially cylindrical base body that is rotatably driven by a drive unit about an axis of rotation and that comprises at least one radially extending wiper blade in the longitudinal direction of the base body which is made of elastic material.
Such a cleaning roller is known from German Patent Application 39 33 722. The wiper blade, which extend in the longitudinal direction of the base body and projects substantially radially, extends helically over a circumferential angle of 180.degree.. The wiper blade is comprised of an elastic material, i.e., rubber, in order to ensure that upon encountering a larger obstacle it can yield in a direction counter to the direction of rotation. The energy for deformation required for such a deflection must be provided by the drive motor. For an electromotorical drive unit there is usually a sufficient power available so that the cleaning roller will not come to a standstill. However, in the case of an air turbine being used as a drive motor and driven by the suction air stream only a limited amount of drive power is available. This amount of drive power is only slightly greater than the required deformation energy for deformation of the wiper blade. In practice this results in a standstill of the cleaning roller so that the cleaning process is impeded. The operator who guides the suction head thus must constantly check during operation of the device whether the cleaning roller is still rotating properly.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,734,211 discloses a cleaning roller which has a helical brush arrangement alternating with a cleaning strip. The cleaning strip has a reduced axial extension in comparison to the brush arrangement and will thus only impact on greater obstacles. The beater bar is comprised of an elastically deformable hollow body which upon impacting on an obstacle will yield due to local elastic deformation.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a cleaning roller of the aforementioned kind with which for a high cleaning power a standstill of the cleaning roller upon impacting on a rigid obstacle can be securely prevented.